Florida surgeon removes liver instead of spleen, patient dies

PENSACOLA, Florida –

The lawyer of a woman whose husband died at a Florida hospital says the surgeon removed the wrong organ.

The couple was visiting their rental property in Okaloosa County when William Bryan, 70, began experiencing left-sided flank pain.

They went to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital, where doctors were to remove his spleen. Instead, the lawyer says, Bryan’s liver was removed.

“During this operation, Dr. Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and, in so doing, transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” a news release from the lawyer reads. “The surgeon proceeded with labeling the removed liver specimen as a “spleen,” and it wasn’t until following the death that it was identified that the organ removed was actually Mr. Bryan’s liver, as opposed to the spleen.”

The surgeon allegedly told the man’s wife, Beverly Bryan, that the “spleen” was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of he husband’s body.

“The family was informed that Mr. Bryan’s spleen, the root of his original symptom profile upon presentation to the hospital, was still in his body and appeared with a small cyst on its surface,” the news release says.

The man’s wife is seeking criminal and civil proceedings and said, “My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky. I don’t want anyone else to die due to his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously made drastic, life-altering surgical mistakes.”

The doctors named in the incident are Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, General Surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, Chief Medical Officer.